School Districts Calling Off School For Thursday’s Winter Storm

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ST. ANN, MO. (KTVI) - With the ice and snow moving into the St. Louis area, school systems were cancelling Thursday classes in droves Wednesday night. By 10:00 pm most major school districts in the area had already made the call for the morning.

What’s unusual about the cancellations is the fact they were made based solely on forecast data. Administrators usually like to get a look at their district’s most treacherous bus routes with the snow falling before making a decision. But the timing of this storm, which is expected to really kick in well after classes would have started, forced the hand of area superintendents.

“Because this storm has an ice component to and it doesn’t really start up until after school’s in session we felt it was prudent to just call the whole day off because we don’t really know exactly what we’re into once the school day begins tomorrow,” Pattonville Superintendent Mike Fulton said.

Fulton was the first large district superintendent to pull the plug on Thursday. Then the dominos began falling. Just before 8pm Kirkwood, normally a holdout on snow days, had also cancelled classes.

“It’s very scary, school busses on icy roads and how quickly they can get that cleaned off,” spokesperson Ginger Cayce said.